Brexit Round-Up: January 2018

In the first of our monthly Brexit round-ups, we curate some of the key talking points over the last four weeks.

As well as the presence of Donald Trump at the World Economic Forum, Brexit was among the topics of debate in the alpine resort of Davos, Switzerland.

Conflicting opinions in the Conservative party surfaced over what a new trade deal with Europe would look like while Mark Carney, the Governor of the Bank of England said a "deeper relationship" with Europe would benefit the UK economy.

Carney said that although global growth had accelerated, the UK was suffering a 'Brexit effect' in the short term. Just a few days later a leaked Government report published on BuzzFeed News suggested that the UK economy would grow more slowly outside the European Union, no matter what deal is struck with Brussels.

US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Britain would still be at the "front of the queue" for a bilateral free trade deal following the exit from the European Union.

Meanwhile, US investment bank Goldman Sachs and Lloyds of London announced they were making plans for operations in Europe.

Goldman Sachs Chief Executive, Lloyd Blankfein told the BBC that they had rented about ten floors of office space in Frankfurt and the Lloyd's of London boss, Inga Beale told CNBC that they were opening a subsidiary in Brussels to continue trading within the EU. She said Brexit negotiations were causing anxiety for UK businesses.

Meanwhile as the pub chain JD Wetherspoon posted strong Christmas sales, Chairman Tim Martin said that if Parliament took "sensible steps" that includes the scrapping of food taxes, the public would benefit from lower food prices.

Looking for some Brexit background listening? Check out Radio 4's Brexit - A Guide for the Perplexed. Series 2 looks at a wide variety of issues from immigration to nuclear energy. It asks questions such as - do we know where the Brexit Journey could take us? What will Brexit mean for Ireland?

Be Prepared for Brexit

August 2018The date phased transition starts to the new Customs Declaration Service

January 2019The date when phased transition ends for the new Customs Declaration Service.